Canon i860 cyan color fading/gradient

	Canon i860 cyan color fading/gradient by heinss (12/15/06 7:44 AM) reply	+ / -
Hi, I have a Canon i860 printer and it's worked great for me since I bought it. I use generic inks (not refills) and I have since the first time I replaced cartridges. The printer has been working fine until recently, when my photo quality has become terrible. When I print the nozzle check pattern, everything seems to print correctly except the long cyan color bands. Both of the cyan bands (the first darker one, and the second lighter one) show a color "gradient" from top to bottom: that is, at the top of the band, the color is as dark as it should be, but it seems to fade toward the bottom of the band. This is true for both light and dark. There are a few fine lines within the lighter part at the bottom that appear to be the correct color (dark). Note that the color is consistent horizontally across the page--the bar does not fade or streak from side to side. Also, the boxes on each side of the second "6C" and "6M" on the left do not show up grey. Instead, they are grey at the top, and show a gradient toward a sort-of peach color at the bottom. This appears to be consistent with the gradient I saw in the cyan stripes. I removed my print head and rinsed it through with warm water until the water was clear. I installed new C,Y,M cartridges, and the nozzle check showed the exact same results. I didn't try cleaning with denatured or isopropyl alcohol, that will probably be my next step. Does anyone have any thoughts/suggestions? - print head burnout? - clogged nozzles? - software problem? - would any of the reset codes (i.e. EEPROM reset) help? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, as I love this printer and would like to see it run for a long time to come? (Also--if any help for this problem applies to the ip4000, please let me know that as well! My dad has an ip4000 that has been working well, and he just started having this EXACT same problem! Bizarre.....) Thanks, Steve

	Re: Canon i860 cyan color fading/gradient by mar9tin (1/9/07 2:50 PM) reply	+ / -
Virtually the same thing happened to my i560 this week, the only difference being that instead of a cyan gradient, I have the dark cyan bar exactly half dark and half as light as the light cyan bar. The black areas on the nozzle check are gray and brown bars. G is only half there and B and J show vertical cyan stripes below a cyan bar intead of solid color thoughout. The nozzle check pattern on the i860 seems to be a little different than on the i560 however. I tried ordinary cleaning, substituting a cleaner cartridge and running just it several times, taking the print head out and soaking it in 2/3 c ammonia + 2 c water for 24 hours (I don't see alcohol doing any better than this), alignments, and driver reinstallation. None of this made the slightest bit of difference. I contacted tech support and they offered nothing except the location of the nearest repair shop and a discount on a trade-in.